


The Way Things Change

by delightfulalot



Category: Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-25
Updated: 2013-04-28
Packaged: 2017-12-08 22:13:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/766617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delightfulalot/pseuds/delightfulalot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Lizzie is, not for the first time, extremely grateful to be going through this with William, especially because she bursts into tears when the sound of the baby's heartbeat fills the air around them. William just presses a kiss to the top of her head, rubs her back with the hand she's not clutching."</p><p>Lizzie gets married and pregnant, not necessarily in that order.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Would You Say Yes?

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally supposed to be one shot but it's turning out to be a looooot longer than expected so it's going up in sections. It is also very very fluffy. Title from Rivers and Roads by The Head and the Heart, more to come soon, constructive criticism is always appreciated!

"If I asked you now," William says off-handedly, "would you say yes?" 

Lizzie lowers her menu just enough so she can look at him and raise her eyebrows. "You couldn't wait until we at least had drinks before you asked tonight?" 

He tucks his chin the slightest bit, but the corners of his mouth quirk up and she thinks she spots a dimple. "Just impatient, I suppose." 

She raises her menu again to hide her face while she smiles. She and William have been dating for a little over three years, living together for two, and for the past six months, every two weeks like clockwork he asks if she'd say yes if he asked her to marry him. He doesn't like asking big questions he doesn't know the answer to - at least, not after she's turned him down both romantically and professionally. It's smart on his part, definitely; the first time he asked they had a long discussion about why she had to say no, and they've slowly been changing into the people she always thought she and her future hypothetical husband would be when they got married. Meanwhile, every time he asks, the idea situates itself a little more firmly in her head until it doesn't actually seem that ridiculous. 

The waiter comes by while Lizzie pretends to be mulling her answer over, and William smoothly orders an inexpensive but nice wine for the both of them, which she appreciates - it's her turn to pay for dinner - and they both order. Once he's gone, Lizzie has no choice but to look directly at William, who's been watching her since he asked, one eyebrow up.

"Well?" 

Lizzie thinks about stalling a little longer, but thinks better of it and smiles instead. "Yes, I think I would say yes." 

William's face doesn't really change, but Lizzie can see the tiniest sparkle in his eye and a slight deepening of that elusive dimple, and her smile stretches into a grin. He nods. "Okay." 

They don't talk about it again for the rest of dinner, focusing instead on their various projects at work and their trip to the theater this weekend, how much longer Gigi's going to be staying with them before she heads back out on her next community outreach project. If she were anyone else, Lizzie might have even forgotten about the entire conversation, but as it is she's a little surprised she can chat and laugh with William when the only thing going through her mind is questions about when he's going to ask, if he's still going to ask, does he have a ring, has he had it the whole time, is she going to hate it, _oh god what if she hates it what will she say?_

They skip dessert and walk the few blocks back to their condo, close enough that their shoulders brush every few steps. There's a chill in the late summer air and Lizzie shivers just enough to get William to drape his sports jacket over her shoulders and tuck his arm around her waist. She leans into him when they stop at a cross-walk, her mind finally quieting at the feel of him all around her, the smell of his aftershave on his jacket. 

And that's when she feels the little bump in the pocket between them. 

She reaches in and pulls out a small gray jewelry box and stares at it, shocked, even while William goes down on one knee on the pavement next to her. He opens the box, still in her hand, and she's staring at a pretty sizable diamond in a white-gold (or, most likely, platinum) band. It's art deco and _gorgeous_ ; Lizzie gasps a little just looking at it. 

"Lizzie Bennet," William says in that soft voice he only seems to use with her. "Will you do me the honor of marrying me?" 

"Yes, of course," she means to say, but " _Where_ did you get this ring?" is what comes out instead. It throws him for a loop, she can tell by the way he stammers for a second before answering, "It was my mother's, and her grandmother's before her. Why, do you not like it? Because I'm sure we could find another one -" 

"No, no, I love it, it's gorgeous," she interrupts him, and then she finally tears her gaze from the ring and actually looks at him. He looks supremely confused and a little nervous and before she even thinks about it she's leaning down and kissing him softly. 

"Yes," she says when she pulls away. "I will marry you." 

His face breaks out into a smile and he stands and takes her face in his hands and kisses her again. Behind them someone claps; they break apart, both of them slightly flushed, to find a little old lady watching them. 

"That was beautiful," she says, wiping tears from her eyes, and Lizzie is too happy to even be a little bit embarrassed about the fact that she got engaged on a street corner waiting for a light to change.

-

Her mother screams when they tell her, as does Gigi, though to a lesser extent. Jane serenely tells Lizzie that she's so excited for her, glad that she's found someone to settle down with and hopes she can be even a little bit as happy as Jane is, still in her first year of marriage with Bing. Lydia and Charlotte's responses are practically the same - Lydia snorts and says, "Took him long enough," while Charlotte, who has heard about every almost-proposal for the past six months, says, "Took you long enough." 

They don't set a date; William seems to have been appeased just by her agreeing to marry him, and has stopped worrying about it. Lizzie throws herself into work; she's planning a new series launch that should hopefully let her expand her little business past the three-room, five person enterprise it currently is. She works so much that she sometimes forgets to have meals until someone shows up in front of her desk with a bag of food.

"You're working even harder than I am," William says one night, coming into her otherwise empty office an hour after they were supposed to leave for their dinner reservations. "Though I only realized we were late when Reynolds pointed out my stomach growling. Perhaps you should get an assistant of your own." 

Lizzie doesn't even glance up when she says, "Like I have the time to interview assistants right now." She looks up then, a little surprised to see William standing so close to her, his shirtsleeves rolled up and his hair sticking up, like he's run his hands through it. "After the series launch I'll slow down, I promise." 

"I know," he says, leaning against her desk, reaching out and taking one of her hands in both of his, looking down at it and turning it over. "Though I'm afraid you'll only be able to slow down at work." 

She tilts her head at him instead of asking the question; he knows her so well he answers it anyway.

"Your mother called me again today." 

Lizzie groans. "And what changes has she made now?"

"Well, our wedding colors are now lavender and 'sunshine'." His voice provides the air quotation marks.

"Oh, that's not actually so bad." 

"Yes, she thinks they'll go nicely with the reception hall she picked out today. We're apparently getting married the fourth weekend in April." 

"Ooooof course we are. What is that, nine months?" 

"Eight and a half." He slides their fingers together, a barely concealed smirk on his mouth. He finds all the wedding talk from Mrs. Bennet _hilarious_ , if only because he knows Lizzie will turn everything down once she's not too busy to answer her mother's calls.

"We should just elope," Lizzie says, watching as he rubs his thumb over the knuckles of her hand he's holding. 

"Why don't we?" 

"Ha! Yeah, okay." 

He stops and looks at her. After a second, she looks up at him. "I'm serious. I don't need a big wedding. I only need you." 

"And that sounds great, it does," she says, folding her other hand over his. "But..."

"But?" he prompts when she trails off.

"It's crazy, right?" 

"Is it?" 

She huffs out a breath. "I don't know," she says after a moment. 

He lifts her hands up to his mouth and kisses them. "Think about it, okay? For me?" 

She nods. "I'll think about it." 

-

It's less than a month later that Lizzie finds herself in the mostly unused upstairs guest bathroom of their condo before breakfast, far away from the noise of William rummaging around in the kitchen. She sits on the lip of the tub, her legs stretched out in front of her, her hands twisted around her phone in her lap, and her gaze never straying from a thin strip of plastic sitting on the edge of the sink. 

By the time she realized her period was missing in action, she was a week late; now, a week after _that_ , after presiding over the series launch and catching up with everything else she's put off for two days, she's finally found the time to take a test. She half thinks her missing period is just stress - it's happened a few times before, usually around finals (plus the memorably tense last week before Jane's wedding, when the Lees and Bennets all met for the first time), and that's why she hasn't done anything crazy, like tell anyone she thinks she might be pregnant. 

She has had a couple weeks to mull over the idea of having a baby, too, and she thinks she's actually come around. Yesterday she got completely distracted during a meeting, imagining what her and William's baby would look like: a tiny little thing with stormy blue eyes and thick eyebrows, a serious expression that dimples with a laugh. She thinks she actually _wants_ to be pregnant, to get the chance to meet a little person that's part of both of them. 

The phone in Lizzie's hand trills its alarm, and she shuts it off quickly before William can hear, even though she's in a different part of the house, came here _specifically_ so he wouldn't know. She stands up, slowly, and edges her way over to the sink. She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and opens them. 

-

William's in the kitchen, standing near the island and eating a bowl of cereal, focused on an article on his iPad in front of him when she enters.

"There you are," he says, a small smile on his face that it took months for her to notice. She loves it, loves _him_ , all the more for the time it took her to recognize just how much he cared. "I was wondering when you were going to make it down." He kisses her cheek as she walks past him to the coffee in the corner. 

She gets out her favorite mug and pours herself a cup; without any discussion, he gets the creamer from the fridge and hands it to her. She raises her eyebrows. "Pumpkin spice?"

"Yes. Gigi did the shopping while she was here last weekend and she's a fan of pumpkins, I suppose."

Lizzie can't help the grin that spreads across her face. "And what do you think of it?"

"It's, well. It tastes like a pumpkin?"

She laughs, and this time she's the one to lean up to kiss him on the cheek. 

"What was that for?" he asks softly. 

"I just think you're sweet," she says, and he kisses her. She ducks out after a moment to put the creamer back up, and he returns to his article while she takes a seat at the island across from him. He looks up briefly and smiles at her. She smiles back, but when his gaze drops, she remembers what she's spent her morning doing and she worries her bottom lip between her teeth. What if he doesn't feel the same way about this as she does?

"Hey. Will?" 

"Hmm?" He doesn't look up from the iPad, and she thinks about telling him to _look_ at her, but she also thinks she'll be able to actually say what she needs to say if he's kind of distracted, so she blurts it out.

"I'm pregnant." 

It's almost comical, the way he drops his spoon into his bowl, his mouth dropping open slightly and his eyes widening in surprise. And then, slowly but surely, his whole face breaks out into a smile. 

"Really?" he asks, and he sounds breathless and excited. She nods, and he sweeps around the island to wrap his arms around her, holding on so tight he pulls her from her chair. His enthusiasm is contagious; she laughs and hugs him back. 

"So this is a good thing?" she asks his shoulder. 

"This is _amazing_ ," he says into her ear, and she buries her face in his neck and tries not to cry. After a minute, he pulls back to look at her, keeping his hands on her upper arms. "Who are we telling first?" 

"Um, nobody?" she asks with a tight smile. He sighs, and she rushes to reassure him. "Just, I haven't even gone to the doctor yet, and the first few weeks are the hardest and they say you shouldn't tell anyone, just in case, and you know me, I'm a worrier, and I just -" She groans and drops her head to his shoulder. "Can't we just have something just for the two of us for a little while?" 

He puts one hand on her cheek and ducks down a little so he can look her in the eye. "Okay. Just for the two of us. Or, actually, the three of us." He glances down at her stomach, and she puts one hand on it and looks down at it, too. 

"There's a _baby_ in there," she says, a little bit in awe, and when she looks back up, William's grin is so wide it looks like it's going to split his face in two. 

-

They manage to keep it a secret, somehow. They even manage to both duck out of work early for their first doctor's appointment - Lizzie insists that he's not needed, they're just going to do a blood test to confirm the pregnancy, but WIlliam similarly _insists_ that he's going to be present for every doctor's appointment, he might as well start now. Lizzie rolls her eyes but secretly, she loves him a little more because of it. 

Lizzie has a big business trip to a conference in New York planned at the end of the month, and WIlliam spends weeks trying to talk her out of it and, barring that, offers to come with her. Lizzie outright refuses, but she spends the whole week she's not at the conference completely stressed that somehow Jane's going to weasel the pregnancy secret out of her, or the morning sickness Lizzie has yet to experience will finally appear. None of that happens, though there is a tense moment when Bing brings home something for dinner that has Lizzie convinced she's going to hurl, the smell of onions is so strong. She chalks it up to a sore stomach and Jane lets it go. 

William hates the secrecy, the stress Lizzie's putting on herself. He calls every night and lectures her about it (in a loving way, and always prefaced with "I just worry about you," but still). She thinks about sending his calls to voicemail every time the phone rings while she's lying in bed, worn out from meetings and lectures and, oh yeah, _making a human being_ , but then she remembers what it felt like to have him there at the doctor's appointment, the sheer joy on his face when it was confirmed that yes, they were going to have a baby, and she answers. 

-

When William picks her up at the airport, there's a handwritten list on a legal pad laying on the passenger seat of his car.  

"What's this?" Lizzie asks, moving it so she can sit down. 

"Your mother hasn't called you at all this week, has she?" 

"No, she knows I don't answer when I'm working. But I don't see why - oh, no," she says, reading over it. "Are these all changes  for the wedding?" 

"Every time she called or e-mailed, I made a note of it." 

The page is full of William's small, neat handwriting, and when she flips it over, there's more on the back. 

"Holy crap," she says. "Is anything the same?" 

"Well, I believe you and I are still the bride and groom," William says dryly. "But most everything else is different, yes. We're getting married in June now." 

"She's added _another_ month?!" Lizzie skims over the most recent changes, the ones that negate the notes on the front of the page. "Our colors are now blue and gray?"

"There was a documentary about the Civil War on PBS last night," is all William says about that. 

"The Civil _War_? For our _wedding_?" 

"You have to admit, the colors do work together well." 

For a few minutes all Lizzie can do is sputter nonsensically. 

"Have you given any more thought to eloping?" William says eventually. 

"I," Lizzie starts, and then sighs. "Won't everyone be disappointed we're not having a big party?" 

"Screw 'em," William says, and Lizzie spares a small smile for those words coming from his mouth. "This is just for you and me." 

"I don't know," Lizzie says hesitantly, worrying the paper in her hands. "I'm not sure." 

"Just keep thinking. Maybe, if you wait long enough, the decision'll be out of our hands and we'll be walking down the aisle to the Battle Hymn of the Republic." He's smiling, one eyebrow crooked up, so Lizzie smiles back.

-

Their next doctor's appointment is two weeks later, and they hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. William is all business despite his wide grin, asking if the heartbeat is strong, if Lizzie is healthy, if there's anything more they need to be doing. Lizzie is, not for the first time, extremely grateful to be going through this with him, especially because she bursts into tears when the sound of the heartbeat fills the air around them. William just presses a kiss to the top of her head, rubs her back with the hand she's not clutching.

In the car on the way home, she says, "Okay. Let's elope." 

He doesn't say anything, just reaches over and laces their fingers together, a tiny smile on his face. 


	2. I Think It's Time to Tell People

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lizzie rolls her eyes and shouts, "Hey we've got something to tell you!" 
> 
> Everyone stops talking and looks at them. William squeezes Lizzie's hand reassuringly, and she smiles at him before turning back to look at the rest of her family. She locks eyes with Jane, sitting across the table with a knowing smile on her face, and says, "I'm pregnant."

William picks Lizzie up at her office at noon the next Friday; as she's writing the date next to her signature on the marriage license she looks up at him and says, "Hey. Do you know what we were doing exactly four years ago today?"

His cheeks color and he nods. "I believe I was embarrassing myself in front of your viewers." 

She reaches out and grabs his tie (cream-colored, to match her simple shift dress and coordinate with his black button-down) and pulls her face down to his. "And now look where we are," she whispers before kissing him, and she thinks she can feel him slightly smile against her lips. 

When they leave City Hall, hand in hand with rings on their fingers, he surprises her with a weekend trip to Carmel. She frets the entire drive down about what everyone's going to say when they find out about the wedding, at times literally wringing her hands together.

"You weren't this worried this morning," William says, but Lizzie waves a hand dismissively. 

"This morning I was just excited. Now I'm thinking about it and I'm pretty sure your sister is actually going to kill me because she doesn't get to give an embarrassing speech at our wedding. _Because we already had it_ , oh god." She leans forward, putting her head between her knees. William reaches over and rubs her back. 

"Gigi's not going to kill you."

"My mother might!"

He pauses. "Yes, she might." 

Lizzie wails. 

"She won't, she won't," he rushes to say, rubbing her back again. "The choices were positively threatening to overwhelm her anyway." 

Lizzie half sits up. "That is true," she says thoughtfully, but then is apparently struck by something else. "But Fitz! What about Fitz? He and Gigi probably had some ridiculous joint speech planned, all about eagles and tigers and smiling."

" _What_ are you talking about?" 

"And Charlotte! Oh my god I got married without Charlotte! Or Jane! I got married without my best friends!" She moves to duck her head between her knees again, so William says, "I thought _I_ was your best friend," fake-petulantly. She immediately sits all the way up and swats his shoulder.

"Don't be stupid. You're my boyfriend; they're the ones I talk to about you. They're probably even more important to our relationship than you are." 

He laughs. "They are rather astute at picking up subtle hints." 

" _Extremely_ subtle, Mr. 'I hear this song's good for dancing'." 

He laughs again, and she smiles and drapes her hand on the back of his neck. After a moment, he says, "You called me your boyfriend." 

"Well, yeah -" she starts to say, and then she remembers that they have matching rings now, solid white-gold bands resting on very important fingers and, oh yeah, she was literally _just_ freaking out about the fact that she _married William Darcy_. 

"Oh my god," she says instead. "We're _married_." 

"For a full three hours now," he says, pulling up to a quaint little seaside inn 

"You're my _husband_." 

"And you are my wife." He turns the car off and leans over to kiss her. She's tense, at first, still worrying, but she relaxes into it, wrapping her arms around his neck. It's awkward over the gear shift, though, so he pulls away before too long. "Are you ready for a relaxing honeymoon weekend?" 

"Yes," she says giddily. "Yes, I'm ready for our honeymoon." 

They don't leave the room all weekend. 

-

Her mother pouts and stops speaking to them for a few weeks when they tell her she can stop planning their wedding, and Lizzie uses the opportunity to focus on work, which seems to be going smoothly. Surprisingly to Lizzie, no one else seems to really care about missing out on Lizzie and William's wedding, understanding it was basically just for the two of them, though when she speaks to Gigi she can practically see the party-planning wheels turning in her head. Lizzie has already decided that whenever Gigi throws this wedding celebration, she's going to go along with it - she's actually kind of curious to hear what kind of ridiculous speech Gigi and Fitz have planned. 

So time passes, and Lizzie and William work, go out to dinner twice a week, fall asleep with a light on while working in bed at least once a week, and everything is normal. 

And then one morning, Lizzie can't button her pants _or_ her cardigan. As she's lying on the bed, her pants unbuttoned and half zipped, her cardigan gaping between buttons, she looks up at William tying his tie in the mirror over the dresser, looking just as well put-together as always.  

"I think it's time to tell people about the baby," she says, unbuttoning her cardigan and shimmying out of her pants, not moving from the bed. 

William just nods and straightens the knot of his tie.

"Next week," Lizzie finishes. "I think it's time to tell people next week." 

William sighs and sits on the bed next to Lizzie, who is currently clothed only in a tank top and underwear. "Why are you having so much trouble telling anyone?"

"I don't know," Lizzie says, throwing her hands over her face. She groans, and then slides them down so her eyes are visible. She looks up at William, towering over her, who doesn't say anything but raises one eyebrow. She sighs, and drops her hands completely. He moves just enough to cover one of her hands with his own and then, slowly, lays down next to her. 

"I think," she starts slowly, "that as long as it's secret, it doesn't feel real."

"What about the sonogram? Or hearing the heartbeat?" 

"Yeah, okay, it feels real in _that moment_. But once we leave the doctor's office, it kind of goes away. Sure, I can't smell onions without puking and I have to pee all the time and my boobs are huge, but none of that really feels like a _baby_ , you know?" She turns to look at him, and he can see the worry in her eyes. 

"But we're entering the second trimester," he says slowly. 

"And everything's about to get really real really fast. May 17th is six months away." 

"So maybe it's time to tell people." 

"And we will! At Thanksgiving."

"Lizzie."

"No, think about it, it's perfect. Everyone we love will be there - we're still bringing Gigi, right?"

"Of course." 

"And so we'll tell them all at the same time, together, and we'll have none of that 'oh, you told her first,' like when Mom told Lydia we were engaged while we were still on the phone with her." 

"Yes, I suppose that will work." 

"Of course it will! Oh, I love a good plan." Lizzie leans over and kisses William on the cheek, before hopping off the bed and heading for the closet, a weight lifted from her shoulders.

-

Thanksgiving is a big rowdy family affair, and Lizzie is half content to just sit at the table and let everyone talk and joke their hearts out, but halfway through dinner William clears his throat and takes her hand under the table. 

"We have some news," he says loudly when no one pays attention to his throat clearing. 

"Well spit it out!" Lydia says, though Mr. and Mrs. Bennet are still deep in conversation with Jane and Gigi, respectively. Bing shoots William an understanding smile. 

Lizzie rolls her eyes and shouts, "Hey we've got something to tell you!" 

Everyone stops talking and looks at them. William squeezes Lizzie's hand reassuringly, and she smiles at him before turning back to look at the rest of her family. She locks eyes with Jane, sitting across the table with a knowing smile on her face, and says, "I'm pregnant."  

The room explodes. Gigi honest-to-god _squeals_ , and then she and Jane and Mrs. Bennet descend on Lizzie with hugs, who happily accepts them all. Mr. Bennet and Bing both shake William's hand, while Lydia punches him on the shoulder and says, "Way to _go_ , Darce-face!" which he answers with a "Thanks" and a face that might show distaste at the nickname if he weren't grinning so widely. 

"When's the baby due?" Mrs. Bennet asks. 

"When'd you find out?" Gigi asks. 

"Boy or girl?" from Jane, who already looks like she's working out crafting ideas in her head. 

"The baby's due May 17th," Lizzie says, and her mother gasps. 

"So _soon_? Why, that's hardly enough time to throw a decent shower!" 

"You guys totally found out about this months ago, didn't you," Lydia says instead of asks. 

"Well - they say the first trimester's the trickiest," Lizzie says. "But we do know what we're having! We went to the doctor two days ago. Oh!" And she's out of her chair, rushing back upstairs to her bag. William shrugs when everyone looks at him, but she's back within a minute, holding both hands to her stomach. 

"I have a picture," she says smugly, showing them the ultrasound photo, "of our little girl."  

-

Charlotte comes over after dinner and Lizzie tells her at the door. Charlotte practically tackles her into a hug, and then they sit around the dinner table with Lizzie's sisters and mom and Gigi, talking about their childhoods and Mrs. Bennet's pregnancies and making a list of things Lizzie needs to do. She feels overwhelmed, at first, but before long it devolves into everyone claiming things they want to get for her, like Jane offering to stock up the baby's wardrobe and Gigi insisting she's going to buy her niece the best stroller on the market. It makes Lizzie feel warm and loved and before she knows it she's crying at the dinner table while Lydia hugs her from behind. 

"I'm sorry," Lizzie laughs after a minute, once someone's handed her a napkin and she's wiped her eyes. "I'm just emotional, I guess."

"Perfectly understandable, dear," Lizzie's mom says, patting her hand. "While I was pregnant with Lydia, I broke down at the simplest things."

"Like what?" Lizzie asks.

"Well, one time you came up to me while I was lying on the couch. I must have been about 8 months pregnant at the time, and as big as a house. You put your little hand on my stomach and said, 'There's a baby in there.' When I said yes, you said, 'I'm gonna be Jane and love it a lot' and then you hugged my stomach and I burst into tears." 

Lizzie can hardly see through the new tears that have sprung up at her mother's story, but she blindly reaches out and grabs her sister's hands, and then pulls them into a hug. 

-

Lydia turns 25 three weeks later, and Lizzie and Jane surprise her with a long weekend trip to New York. Lizzie sleeps the entire plane ride there, only waking up when they start their descent into the city. She watches as Lydia peers out of the window, eyes screwed up a little against the bright morning sun, the same excited look on her face she gets every time she visits Jane. 

Jane is waiting for them outside of baggage claim, a beautiful handmade sign in her hands that says, "Welcome Lydia and Lizzie!" Lydia squeals and sprints ahead of Lizzie to attack hug Jane, and when Lizzie reaches them she throws her arms around both of them. 

"You look pregnant," Jane says to Lizzie when they all untangle themselves. 

"Thank you?" 

"It's a good thing," Jane says, rubbing one hand over Lizzie's small bump and nodding. "You make a cute pregnant lady."

"You really do, sis," Lydia says. "Even when you were snoring on the plane. The flight attendants agreed." 

"I do not _snore,_ " Lizzie says, fake-offended. 

"Sorry," Lydia says, shrugging. "I'm all about the truth." 

Lizzie wrinkles her nose but smiles, tucking one arm into Lydia's, who then tucks her other arm into Jane's, and they leave the airport arm-in-arm (though they disentangle themselves pretty quickly to maneuver their way through the crowd).

The weekend passes quickly; Bing is out of town so it's just the three of them, and they alternate ridiculous tourist-y things like checking out the tree at Rockefeller Center (neither Lizzie nor Lydia have been in New York during the Christmas season before) with curling up on the couch in Jane's apartment watching a movie. It reminds Lizzie of Christmases before any of them moved out of their parents' house, when they'd fall asleep in the den, dark except for the twinkling lights on the tree, their father's trains set up all around them. 

"This time next year we'll have another member of our family," Jane says late Saturday night, when they collapse on her couch after some marathon gift shopping. 

"I can't believe you're gonna have a baby," Lydia says, looking at Lizzie's stomach somewhat warily. 

Lizzie smoothes her shirt down against her stomach, making the bump clearly visible. "Yep. There's a little person in there. Will told me she's now the size of a bell pepper." 

Jane and Lydia both laugh, and Lydia screws up her face and says, "What?" 

"He's gotten really into the pregnancy websites lately," Lizzie says, laughing. 

"You two are really going to be the best parents," Lydia says, and Jane nods, a fond look on her face. 

"You guys," Lizzie says thickly, shaking her head to try to clear the tears already threatening to fall. She wraps an arm around both of her sisters and pulls them in, and they sit there like that for a while, a tangle of arms and feelings. 

Jane sends them on their way Sunday evening, waving as they make their way through security. Lydia crashes with Lizzie when they make it back to California at midnight, feeling like it's 3 AM. Lizzie fusses over her bed for a few minutes, even though it's the same room Lydia always stays in and the sheets are clean and it's not like she really needs Lizzie to toss the numerous decorative pillows onto the floor for her. Lizzie only stops when Lydia grabs her arms. 

"I just want to make sure you're comfortable," Lizzie says, and Lydia smiles at her.

"I'll be fine, Lizzie. It's not like I haven't slept here before. 

"I know," Lizzie says, and after a moment she wraps her arms around her baby sister in a tight hug. "Did you have a good birthday?" she asks.

"The best," Lydia says, smiling. "Love ya, sis." 

"Love you too," Lizzie says, as she heads out of the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lizzie is a bit of an emotional pregnant woman; I feel like as someone who kind of wears her thoughts on her sleeve, the hormones of pregnancy would wreak havoc on her emotions. Keep the kudos coming!


End file.
